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Foster Farms salmonella-tainted chicken: many could be sickened in 2 outbreaks

Chicken slaughter

Most chicken are contaminated with Salmonella which spreads during processing. But since March, federal officials have seen a spike in cases associated with Foster Farms chicken.
(Allison Milligan/The Oregonian)

All told, that might mean that more than 10,000 people may
have been sickened in about 12 months based on a multiplier used by the CDC,
which assumes that for every known illness, at least 25 others go unreported.

That's a lot of people to develop food poisoning after consuming a product that's well-known to be contaminated with Salmonella.

The outbreak was traced to raw chicken. The USDA alert and a Foster Farms statement both stressed the importance of safe food handling, saying that raw poultry needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees and that home cooks need to avoid cross contamination.

"We're not seeing an outbreak because people suddenly decided they like to eat their chicken rare," Hedberg said. "If you're suddenly seeing an uptick in cases, it's probably because there's more bacteria."

This latest outbreak started in March and is ongoing. The USDA notice said illnesses had been traced to 18 states. They include Arizona, Arkansas, California Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, North Carolina, Utah, Oregon, Michigan, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin, Hedberg said.

So far, federal officials have identified seven strains of Salmonella Heidelberg associated with the outbreak. It's not clear how many might be resistant to antibiotics, a common problem associated with Salmonella Heidelberg.

Calls seeking comment from the CDC, which has nearly 70 percent of its staff furloughed, were not returned.

The contaminated chicken was produced at three Foster Farms facilities in central California and primarily sold in California, Oregon and Washington. Most of those sickened -- more than 200 cases -- live in California. The previous Foster Farms outbreak, which started in 2012 and spiked about this time last year, was centered in Oregon and Washington state. Together, the two states confirmed nearly 100 cases.

But this time around, the Northwest has largely been spared, with 15 cases in Washington state and seven in Oregon.

The main reason, Hedberg said, probably has to do with where the chicken came from. Most of the Foster Farms poultry shipped to Oregon is produced in Kelso, Wash. Following the previous outbreak, Foster Farms bolstered safety procedures at the Kelso plant.

The chicken in the latest outbreak was processed in central California. The USDA said packages of suspect chicken have an establishment number of P6137, P6137A or P7632 printed inside the USDA mark of inspection.

Foster Farms said that in response to the latest outbreak it has bumped up food safety practices at its California plants.

"Foster Farms has instituted a number of additional food safety practices, processes and technology throughout the company facilities that have already proven effective in controlling Salmonella in its Pacific Northwest operations earlier this year," the statement said

A company spokesman declined to give specifics, saying its food safety practices are "proprietary." When asked why the company did not act sooner, a spokesman said Foster Farms wanted to be sure the added safety practices were effective.

The USDA has known about this problem for a decade. Oregon scientists have been tracking a Salmonella Heidelberg strain first associated with Foster Farms in 2004. State authorities notified both the USDA and Foster Farms.

The USDA allows companies to sell raw poultry with a 10 percent incidence rate of Salmonella. Neither the agency nor Foster Farms has ordered a recall in connection with the outbreaks.

But something should be done, Hedberg said.

"The USDA needs to figure out what's happening at the plant," she said. "Clearly something is going on that is causing an increase in contamination."